Why should more dental professionals move towards a digital workflow?
Medit held an Asia-Pacific Symposium where we invited renowned professionals in the industry to share with us how the digital transformation of the industry has positively impacted their work. One of our guests, Dr. Ronald Chan, shares with us his thoughts about digital dentistry and how the digital workflow is transforming the dental industry.
So firstly, why don’t you briefly introduce yourself and your company?
I’m Dr. Chan Yik Long, Ronald, an Executive Director of Modern Dental Group Limited and the Group’s Southeast Asia General Manager. Our main dental laboratory in Shenzhen, China, which houses over 2,000 dental technicians and manufactures dental prostheses for not only the Chinese market, but also the overseas markets. In addition, about 80 percent of dentists in Hong Kong deal with Modern Dental Group. Modern Dental Group Limited also operates dental labs globally in 25 countries, and is growing as a distribution company for dental materials as well.
What are your thoughts on digital dentistry?
As a dentist myself, it is evident that over the past few years, the dental industry is being transformed consistently, led by the rapid improvements in technology, Digital dentistry in particular is increasingly gaining popularity, and rightfully so. When incorporating digital dentistry, investing in an intraoral scanners in the dental workflow has shown to be more efficient than directly investing in milling equipments, particularly in Asia. This is due to the fact that as compared to Europe, for example, the cost of dental prostheses is relatively low, as is the logistics costs between dental clinics and labs. This is why Modern Dental Group has been increasingly interested in intraoral scanners such as the Medit i500, since we understand what our clients want. We began supplying the i500 last year and it has been well-received by dentists internationally and in terms of its quality and ROI.
Since we’re on the topic of intraoral scanners, what do you think are some important factors that should be considered when choosing one?
I think that for dental clinics, it is most important to pick an intraoral scanner which is easy to use and which can be successfully integrated and utilized in your current workflow. This is especially true if your clinic is taking its first steps into digital dentistry. Purchasing a scanner is the easy part, but if you don’t utilize it well, then it becomes a useless technology. When choosing an intraoral scanner, make sure that the package deal comes with training for your staff on how to use the scanner and how to integrate it into your workflow. Another important factor to consider is the tip size of the intraoral scanner, as some patients, particularly in Asia, have a smaller oral cavity. Therefore, with a small scanner tip size, such as the Medit i500, it will definitely help in certain cases.
What are your considerations when building digital workflows?
One of the pros of digital workflows is the ability to produce prostheses of the same quality, consistently. There are currently many different intraoral scanners available in the market. Perhaps, when scanning for just a single crown, the difference between the various intraoral scanners is negligible. However, when it comes to more complex cases, or processing full scans and working with dental labs, it would be better to choose an open system which will allow you more flexibility for you to work with various laboratories. Another aspect to consider is, again, customer support. In this regard, I think that Medit is a good partner, as the staff constantly listen to feedback and suggestions from users in order to solve problems and add new features to boost their solution range.
We were honored to have Dr. Chan with us at the Asia-Pacific Symposium and look forward to our continued partnership. If you’d like to stay connected with us to find out the latest updates and join us at our next symposium, follow us on Facebook!
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